Trading and Mood/wellbeing

[ffsear]

Does anyone else find their trading performance affects there overall mood in life?

I'm not talking about getting emotional about money and moving your stop loss and getting burned. I'm talking about your your overall mood, if you're a successful trader who always sticks to their strategy, you still suffer the bad times.

If i have a good day/week then I'm over the moon, elated, feel more energized and motivated. etc etc

But when I have a bad day/week it gets me down, i feel pissed off, i get irritated. I don't wanna hear my Mrs voice etc etc

Its almost like after 7 years of being addicted to trading (lets face it, its addictive) my mind and body are at the mercy of the markets.

I'm diagnosed with ADHD so that may be a factor, who knows!

Anyone else?

 

[teflon142]

I got diagnosed with ADHD, but only after I stopped trading.

 

[ffsear]

To put it into perspective, this week i've mostly been pissed off.

I hate it when your on the right side of the market but still lose money because of **** poor trade management. Shorts on both USD/JPY and EUR/AUD should have paid me this week, but moving stop losses to break even have left me with nothing but transaction costs.

I won't beat myself up about it because thats how i trade. But still, ITS ANNOYING!!!

 

[ffsear]

I got diagnosed with ADHD, but only after I stopped trading.

You gotta do something with that hyperfocus !

 

[teflon142]

You gotta do something with that hyperfocus !

that's kinda how the whole thing (diagnosis) came about, once I'd stopped I was sorta all over the place.

Impulsivity was sometimes a problem because I would put trades on that I probably shouldn't have, but it didn't really cost me anything to do it. Just noise in the P&L and the comms.

 

[ffsear]

Did you take medication? I've just started Concerta (ritalin)

 

[Forexmospherian]

Well i hope you had sells on the EA yesterday evening and today ?

It's bound to be a major issue for your trading - I reckon you need to fine tune ( evolution not revolution) your strat and also break the mood cycle by some method as well as take the meds that your are now on

All changeable I reckon and I am sure it effects over 70% of all traders until they do something about it

I admire your openness on this and I am sure you will not allow it to stop you having a successful trading career

Regards

F

 

[Mr. Charts]

The bottom line is self-discipline. I know that's easy to say and more difficult to put into practice whilst trading.
When I started in the mid 90s I felt all the emotions and made mistakes due to emotions. I soon realised that the key for me was to grit my teeth and consciously refuse to act on emotions, only on the hard evidence in front of my eyes. To ignore the emotions I felt. It's a bit like a paramedic called to some terrible RTA. You get on with the job whilst you are doing it, and afterwards you must switch off and that takes effort, but it comes with time and experience.
Because of the way I trade I haven't had a losing day for a very long time (cue incoming abuse). If you trade on momentum with charts and price action and tight stops, it's not a difficult thing to achieve. This comment does not apply to some types of trading instrument where you cannot achieve a high success rate, like FX and if I traded FX (other than occasional trades) I'm sure I'd have losing days.
I can't help thinking taking drugs which affect dopamine and norepinephrine levels in the pre-frontal cortex and then trading is potentially fraught with problems.

 

[ffsear]

I think less chart time is what i need. I can enter market without emotion, I know my A++ setups, and I stick to them. I only make about 3-4 trades a week and I hold positions 3-5 days normally. Staring at charts all day, taking in every tick is probably a form of torture.